Treasury cancels $21 million in Booz Allen contracts, blaming Trump tax return leak
By Marshall Cohen, CNN
(CNN) — The Treasury Department cut ties with Booz Allen Hamilton on Monday and announced that it was canceling $21 million in federal contracts with the consulting giant because one of its ex-employees previously leaked President Donald Trump’s tax returns to the press.
A statement from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent referenced Charles Littlejohn, a onetime Booz employee who is now serving a five-year prison term for stealing tax return information on Trump and other wealthy Americans while contracting at the IRS.
“President Trump has entrusted his cabinet to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” Bessent said in the statement. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.”
A Booz Allen spokesperson disputed some of Bessent’s claims in a statement to CNN.
“Booz Allen fully supported the U.S. government in its investigation, and the government expressed gratitude for our assistance, which led to Littlejohn’s prosecution,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to discussing this matter with Treasury.”
The Booz Allen spokesperson said Littlejohn’s crimes occurred “on government systems, not Booz Allen systems” and that Booz Allen “stores no taxpayer data on its systems and has no ability to monitor activity on government networks.”
Littlejohn pleaded guilty in 2023 to one count of unauthorized disclosures of income tax returns. Trump’s tax information was published by The New York Times and ProPublica, which revealed that Trump paid no federal income taxes for many years before becoming president. The leaks also targeted thousands of other wealthy people.
The judge who sentenced him said he pulled off “the biggest heist in IRS history.” The Treasury Department said the data breach affected more than 400,000 taxpayers. The case was prosecuted by the Justice Department during the Biden administration.
Federal records indicate that Littlejohn is incarcerated at a medium-security federal prison in southern Illinois and that he is scheduled to be released in October 2027.
Booz Allen shares (BAH) fell by about 10% after Bessent announced the canceled contracts.
The-CNN-Wire
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